PUNTA GORDA — It was the type of juxtaposition seen only when a title is on the line.
In right field, the Riverdale Raiders, smiling and chirping, fell into position for a team photo, holding a piece of hard-won hardware front and center.
In left field, the Charlotte Tarpons stood mute, listening to coaches who told the moral of Thursday’s sad story while also trying to keep a very good team’s spirits from cratering.
The Raiders screamed. The Tarpons sobbed.
Riverdale 7, Charlotte 3, a score that really doesn’t tell the story of how the District 6A-8 softball championship transpired.
“They just kind of kept dinking it around and we couldn’t get outs, so that’s what happens when you let somebody hang around and hang around and hang around,” Charlotte coach Dave Anthony said. “You know, when you feel like you’re the better team, but you let them hang around. You give ‘em a chance, you let them feel like they can win, and then they do.”
It could be argued the Tarpons were the hangers on, as they struggled mightily to get anything going against Raiders starting pitcher, Jordyn Korpi. In starting the lesser-used Korpi rather than staff ace Adrianna Manetta, Riverdale played a hunch that paid off.
“We haven’t seen her before and she hasn’t pitched that much for them,” Anthony said. “It didn’t seem like anything crazy, but we just couldn’t get it going. We had seen (Manetta) the first time we played them and I think they just wanted to try something different because we hit the other kid really good.”
Korpi’s lefthanded repertoire flummoxed the Tarpons throughout the night and she pitched with a lead most of the way. Riverdale pushed solo runs across in each of the first two innings but gave one back to Charlotte in the bottom of the second when Marissa Muzio tripled and scored on Addi Recker’s sacrifice bunt.
It remained 2-1 until the bottom of the sixth when Lexi Fitzgerald roped a leadoff triple to right and scored on a Mia Flores sacrifice.
A quiet seventh inning led to a noisy eighth.
Riverdale immediately put Charlotte on its heels when Sara Hall led off with a sinking line drive that snuck under Arista Turner’s outstretched glove in right field. It was enough to score the ghost runner from second base and get Hall to third with a triple.
That’s when the game got weird.
Nicole Ramirez hit a comebacker to Charlotte pitcher Dava Hoffer, who attempted to freeze Hall at third base. A rundown ensued, seemingly resulting in a 1-5-2-6 put-out. Hall and Riverdale’s third base coach immediately called for obstruction against Tarpons shortstop Amber Chumley and the home plate umpire walked up the line and agreed, ruling Hall safe back at third.
The scene nearly ended in a scrum before order was restored.
Alas, order is not the same thing as composure, and it was clear the Tarpons had lost theirs.
Faced with runners on second and third, the Tarpons opted for an intentional walk to load the bases with no outs. The strategy appeared to pay off as Korpi hit a hard ground ball to Chumley, but her only play wound up being to first base, allowing Hall to score.
Madison Bell followed with a single up the middle for a 5-2 Raiders lead. Marina Colon’s run-scoring groundout and Sophia Castaneda’s single pushed the Riverdale lead to 7-2 before the Tarpons could extract themselves from the inning.
Charlotte scored its own ghost runner on a Maddie Stamm sacrifice fly, but that would be all it could muster.
“It all starts with that obstruction call, but then again, so many things led up to that,” Anthony said. “I liked our play. I thought we played it perfectly, but those rundowns are tough. It’s tough to stay out of the baseline.”
Riverdale improved to 20-7 with the win and secured one of the eight region playoff bids. Charlotte (17-9) must now wait until the weekend to see if its resume is strong enough to earn an at-large bid.
The Tarpons were ranked No. 6 in the region in the most recent FHSAA rankings, which came out before the regular season’s final week. Since then, Charlotte defeated Port Charlotte, Riverview and Lehigh before falling to the Raiders.
The region’s top two teams — Bloomingdale and East Lake — won their respective districts, but No. 3 Wiregrass Ranch was stunned by Gaither, introducing a bid thief to the region bracket. So the question will come down to whether or not Charlotte has done enough to remain among the top seven.
It’s a tough turn of events for a team that entered Thursday as a defending district champion playing with a little swagger and all but expecting to repeat.
“I never thought we were going to lose,” Anthony said. “And a couple little balls don’t bounce your way. But that’s how it goes. Now we’ve got to sit and wait and see how things play out and pray we can sneak in there.”
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